Elder Stephen Crisp returned home from a two year mission in the Ecuador Guayaquil North Mission on November 17th, 2015.

Monday, January 5, 2015

January 5th, 2015

It was a pretty eventful week, I had this ingrown toenail thing for over a month and i finally got it taken out. It was a super spiritual moment. No but ive been walking around in flip flops for a week now. It was really good timing, cause even though i couldnt really go out in the middle of the week, nobody was doing anything here but drinking or blowing things up or being on vacation. New years night was completely loca....over there we just shoot off poppers from 12:00 to 12:05. Here from 10pm till 3 am they were lighting all sorts of stuff up. So News years day was completely dead. So we started work again on friday, and that day me and E Jensen decided to just do a revolution of the work here. We set super straight goals about how we would find new people to teach, how we would work with them, how we would only work with those willing to change. Cause these past few weeks really weve had little output of our efforts.

Our plans and goals were super successful, we contacted and taught quite a few new people, and got a super good referal, a woman named Julia who just adopted 3 grandkids who were mistreated. We only talked a little bit with her last night, but she accepted to be baptized and is super ready to learn. That referral pumped us up a bunch, it was the best Ive felt in a while. In just 3 days we turned this area from being honestly pathetic, just us playing hide and go seek every day with people who dont want to learn, to now having a good list of people who actualy want to learn. Even though we didnt log that many hours we changed a lot and i feel really satisfied.

I was listening to Remember lots wife, a devotional from Elder Holland that talks a lot about making new starts, just looking forward as the title implies. And there was a line he says that stands out a lot as a lesson that i think applies to everybody whos living...When something is over and done with, when it has been repented of as fully as it can be repented of, when life has moved on as it should and a lot of other wonderfully good things have happened since then, it is notright to go back and open up some ancient wound that the Son of God Himself died trying to heal.

Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is it charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ.

I recommend that talk to anybody at any point in their life. He says that line directed also to people individually...to just move on with life, keeping the hope and vision up high. Not to impede the atonement by being miserable. Christ made that atonement so that we can be happy even if we are miserable people, or make miserable choices. Thats it just keep moving forward. Q tengan muy buena semana pibes.

Elder Crisp

Pics-1. This is a huge paper mache thing called monigotes, they burn them for new years2. Me and my little friend from inside of my toe3. The one photo explanation of Ecuador on New years day

Alma 29:9

"I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy."